Contents

After I thought about it and stuff... it did make sense. And the how and why of us celebrating the holidays suddenly didn't matter as much anymore. At least not as much as us being together, you know? Me and Valeria and mommy and daddy and uncle Ben and uncle Johnny and even his girlfriend Kourtney... talking and laughing and giving each other gifts and playing games... and when I looked around me, I could see it. What my dad had been talking about... surrounding me, around all of us, protecting us... Love, right?

Early Years

Franklin Richards is the son of Reed and Susan Richards, who are better known as Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four, the first modern team of superhuman adventurers. Reed and Susan Richards developed their superhuman powers as a result of exposure to cosmic radiation during a flight in outer space. Their exposure to this radiation also had important consequences for their son, who was born years later.

First, the radiation somehow affected Susan Richards' body in such a way as to give her serious difficulties in giving birth. For unknown reasons, soon before she was to give birth to Franklin, Susan Richards' blood cells were observed to be carrying a strange form of energy that threatened the lives of both herself and the baby. Presumably, this energy effect is linked with Susan Richards' superhuman powers over energy that enable her to become invisible and to create force fields.

With Franklin's birth imminent, Reed Richards and his teammates, the Human Torch and the Thing, journeyed into the anti-matter dimension called the Negative Zone to find the only means known to Mister Fantastic of saving his wife and unborn son: the Cosmic Control Rod wielded by Annihilus, one of its most dangerous inhabitants. Mister Fantastic succeeded in obtaining the Rod and drained energy from it into a special container, which he and his two colleagues then brought to their own dimension. Reed Richards succeeded in using the energy from the Rod in bringing the energy in his wife's blood under control, and she safely gave birth to a healthy son. The infant was named Franklin Benjamin Richards in honor of his late grandfather, Franklin Storm, and the Richards' best friend, Benjamin J. Grimm. In his early years the sorceress Agatha Harkness acted as Franklin's nanny and protector.

The cosmic radiation that had given Reed and Susan Richards their superhuman powers also resulted in affecting the genetic structure of their son: Franklin was born a mutant. Unlike most superhuman mutants, whose unusual powers do not emerge until the mutant reaches puberty, Franklin began manifesting his superhuman powers at a very early age. The very first indication of his powers was shown when the Frightful Four had beaten the Fantastic Four, as toddler Franklin Richards used to power to wake up the Thing and this allowed the Fantastic Four to achieve victory.[2] In the normal course of events, Franklin's psionic powers would presumably increasingly emerge as he grew older until they reach their full, vast potential when he achieves maturity.

However, this normal process was ruined by Annihilus, who, during a later conflict with the Fantastic Four, placed Franklin within a machine that triggered the release of his full psionic potential. Franklin was too young and inexperienced to control the vast energies building up within him, and Reed Richards feared that his son would be unable to prevent himself from releasing enough psionic energy to destroy all life on Earth. Unable to find another means of dealing with the problem in the short space of time left before disaster would strike, Reed was forced to use a device that rendered Franklin comatose, and thus unable to project psionic energy.

Months later, while the robot Ultron-7 was attacking the Fantastic Four and other superhuman beings, energy radiating from the robot affected Franklin's mind and caused him to unwittingly release great psionic energies which overpowered and defeated Ultron. Franklin was thus awakened from his coma, and his psionic powers were apparently now back at the level at which they were before Annihilus subjected him to his machine.

Later, Franklin used his powers to age himself into adulthood within a very brief space of time. (In this form he became known as Avatar.) Although his psyche remained that of a child, Franklin could now make full use of his psionic potential. Realizing he still lacked the emotional maturity to control his vast powers, Franklin transformed himself back into a child, imposing psychic "dampers" in his mind so he could not use his full powers until he achieved the necessary psychological maturity.

However, Franklin did thereafter manifest the power to foresee events from alternate futures in his dreams. Unknown to his parents, Franklin became a member of Power Pack, a team of children possessing superhuman powers. He then took the "super hero" name Tattletale due to his ability to foresee the future. In one adventure involving Power Pack, Franklin even journeyed through outer space to the throne world of the alien Snarks and back to Earth. Franklin's "dream" power has also continued to evolve in other ways.

Fantastic Force

Later, claiming that Franklin's presence in this timeline would lead to destruction, Reed Richards' father Nathaniel abducted the child into the future. (In fact, Nathaniel had learned about the Fantastic Four's forthcoming disappearance upon defeating Onslaught, although he did not know about Onslaught himself.) Nathaniel raised Franklin for years in the future, training him to be a warrior and to master his superhuman powers. The adolescent Franklin journeyed back in time, arriving in the Fantastic Four's headquarters mere moments after Nathaniel had abducted him as a child. The teenage Franklin called himself Psi-Lord, and wielded vast psionic powers, although they remained far short of his full potential. For a long period Reed Richards was held captive by an enemy known as Hyperstorm. During this period, Franklin founded the Fantastic Force, a new super-hero team to carry on his father's work of protecting humanity. Finally, however, Psi-Lord somehow was removed from the Fantastic Four's time and was replaced by the child Franklin, as he had been at the time that Nathaniel had abducted him. Nathaniel claimed that Hyperstorm must have arranged the substitution, and that the Psi-Lord version of Franklin no longer existed in the Fantastic Four's timeline. (Ironically, according to Nathaniel Richards, Hyperstorm is the son of the Franklin Richards and Rachel Summers of yet another alternate future.)

Onlslaught

The malevolent entity Onslaught captured Franklin in order to manipulate the child's latent ability to reshape reality. Ultimately, the Fantastic Four and many of the Avengers dove into Onslaught's energy form in order to disrupt it; when the X-Men then launched a full assault on Onslaught, he was seemingly destroyed. The general public believed that the Fantastic Four and many of the Avengers had perished as well.[3] However, Franklin, who remained safely on Earth, had unconsciously used his vast psionic powers to create a "pocket" universe in another reality, to which he transported the vanished heroes. There the Fantastic Four and the missing Avengers led radically different lives with no memories of their pasts in their native universe.

Franklin subsequently embarked on a journey through other alternate realities with the swamp creature called the Man-Thing, the other-dimensional talking waterfowl Howard the Duck, the alien Tana Nile, and the mutants Artie Maddicks and Leech. Franklin's companions finally realized that Franklin himself had created these worlds with his psionic powers.[4][citation needed]

Franklin was soon approached by the Celestial Ashema, who showed Franklin that his parents (and Earth's other heroes) were alive. Franklin had subconsciously shunted them into a new reality, another Earth which resided in the blue globe Franklin had been carrying with him since Onslaught. Ashema forced Franklin to make a choice: one of the worlds had to die. Literally fleeing from this awful choice, Franklin plummeted over a cliff, nearly dying. To resurrect him, Ashema melded with Franklin's consciousness, acquiring his human perspective on life and death. Through Franklin, a compromise was struck: both worlds could live, but Earth's heroes had to leave Franklin’s creation and return to their own world.[5][citation needed] Franklin's alternate Earth was later transported to our solar system by Dr. Doom and placed in orbit on the far side of the sun, where it was named Counter-Earth.[6]

Reunited with his family, Franklin moved into Pier Four, the Fanastic Four’s new waterfront headquarters.[7] Franklin got a pet, a dog-like creature named Puppy who seemed a younger, smaller twin to the Inhumans' Lockjaw, and a new caretaker, the dimensionally displaced Caledonia. Franklin also acquired a sister when the time-dancing Valeria von Doom (claimed daughter of Susan Richards) joined the family. Franklin’s time at Pier Four proved brief; when catastrophe loomed, Reed and Sue sent Franklin, Puppy, and Caledonia to Haven, a school located on the far side of the universe, where they were soon joined by Valeria.[8] When Franklin dreamed of Valeria’s death at the hand of the cosmic force Abraxas, he and Valeria returned to Earth. When Abraxas did appear, Valeria and Franklin combined their powers to resurrect the only being capable of stopping Abraxas: Galactus. Franklin learned that Valeria was the sister he had sent elsewhere, and he exhausted his remaining powers to restore her to his mother’s womb as an infant.

Ordinary human

By the wake of Mr. Fantastic's activation of the Ultimate Nullifier to destroy Abraxas, Franklin lost all his powers in the process of reforming Galactus and thus became a normal child. After Valeria’s birth, Franklin felt ignored and unloved, and his attempts to regain his parents attention inadvertently led to the creation of the mathematical menace Modulus.

Shortly afterwards, Doctor Doom made a pact with the Haazareth, to gain vast magical power. During Doom's attacks upon the Fantastic Four, Franklin was sucked into Hell by the Haazareth. After the defeat of Doom, his parents rescued him. Franklin had a hard time coping with the traumatic experience of being tormented in Hell. With help from the Thing and Franklin's mother, he made a complete mental recovery.

Because of the danger of their adventures, child Welfare questioned the safety of the Baxter Building, due to the numerous super-villain attacks on it. After much reluctance, Reed and Sue agreed that if necessary, their children could be taken away. However, an initial condition was that a "dummy" safe house was to be set up, and a press release to be announced that the children had already been moved. It is uncertain exactly which of the FF's enemies carried out the attack, or why (there is speculation that Reed carried out the attack himself to allow him and Sue to keep the kids), but it was enough to convince Child Welfare.

Onslaught Reborn

When the Scarlet Witch used her powers to depower countless mutants, including Magneto and Prof. Xavier, the power lost by Magneto and Xavier combined and restored Onslaught (whose consciousness still remained lingering after his death), who was now determined to kill Franklin Richards and every hero in existence. Onslaught took control of both the Human Torch and Mister Fantastic in an attempt to get Franklin but was interrupted by the Thing and Invisible Woman.

When Franklin fled to Counter-Earth, Onslaught followed him. While the Avengers assessed their new threat which did not exist until Franklin appeared, they took into account what the boy said about Onslaught. However, they were in disbelief that he was the son of Susan Storm and Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four as they were not married in their reality.

After a brief skirmish, the heroes and villains decided to work together to defeat Onslaught, but it was Rikki "Bucky" Barnes who defeated him, using a Fantasticar to send them both through the Negative Zone barrier in the Fantastic Four's lab, trapping them. Franklin returned home, Bucky found herself on Earth 616, and Onslaught was last seen floating outside the Area 42 Prison in the Negative Zone.

Secret Invasion

In the beginning of the Skrull strike on Earth, the Skrull Lyja, impersonating Sue Richards, sends the entire Baxter Building into the Negative Zone with Franklin, Valeria, and Johnny Storm inside. Franklin and Valeria team up with Johnny and the Thing to fight the Skrulls. Benjamin Grimm asks the help of the Terrible Tinkerer, who is an inmate in the prison for the unregistered villains in the Negative Zone. The Tinkerer refuses, seeing no reason to help the people who arrested him as he was taking his grandchildren out for ice cream, and sent him to prison without due process. Franklin and Valeria plead with the Tinkerer. They strongly remind the old man of his own grandchildren. He was moved to tears, repented and agreed to help, in exchange for his freedom and reunion with his grand-kids.

Facing the news of mutant and anti-mutant riots in San Francisco, Franklin asked his mother and father why people hate mutants and if that meant they hate him.[9]

Dark Reign

Franklin found himself along with his sister under siege by Norman Osborn, Venom and a high number of H.A.M.M.E.R. agents. The siblings were on their own due to their father's experiment which left him unreachable and the other members of the Fantastic Four stranded in alternate realities.[10]

Valeria managed to separate Osborn from the rest of the H.A.M.M.E.R. agents by using a bureaucratic technicality and by having them underestimate her. Osborn was led into a room where he faced Franklin wearing a Spider-Man mask and called him a villain, making him chase them in the building and intending to shot them down.[11]

The Fantastic Four have resurfaced by this point with an angry Invisible Woman telling Osborn "Step away from the children". Angry, he snapped that she should try to make him. Sue obliged by smashing him against a wall using one of her invisible force fields. Osborn retaliated by summoning H.A.M.M.E.R. agents and Venom. None however managed to pass through Sue's barrier.[12]

Mr. Fantastic informed Osborn to leave the Baxter Building and not to come back, dismissing him. Infuriated, he attempted to shoot Reed, only to be shot by Franklin in turn. Although all are shocked, none understood how Franklin managed to shoot Norman since Franklin was only wielding a toy gun (both Johnny and Ben examine the gun once it was shot) hinting that perhaps some of Franklin's reality altering abilities had resurfaced.[12]

An alternate version of himself from the future returned, and stated "Rest....and remember what you are.". Moments later after being put to bed, Franklin created a Universe with his powers, his nigh unlimited power has returned. Whether he has regained all his power is yet unknown.[13]

The Future Foundation

When Franklin creates a pocket universe, a mysterious imaginary friend appears who advises him and helps him to use his powers. Time later, the Human Torch dies at the hands of Annihiuls saving his family, the Fantastic Four disband and becomes the Future Foundation.

Due the presence of Reed Richards of alternate universes, Mr. Fantastic made an alliance with many villains such as Mad Thinker, AIM, Wizard, Diablo and High Evolutionary to plan how to stop them. Then they lead the battle to High Evolutionary's city where one of the Richards escaped with Doctor Doom and the others two were captured by the Kree army. After returning to Baxter Building, Richards reunited other heroes to fight the Inhumans in Attilan, but at the time they where preparing to go at the rooftop, a Kree invasion started. Reed used Iron Man's armor and Sue's power to create a force field around Manhattan, at the same time the Cult of the Negative Zone opened the portal to the Negative Zone after Spider-Man failed at stop them, the portal revealed a living Johhny Storm with a enslaved Annihilus.[1]

Then Johnny gathered the team drawing with fire the symbolical "4" at the sky above the Baxter Building. Reed, Sue, Ben and Peter boarded one of the Annihilation Wave's ships controlled by Johnny, who used the rest of the ships to battle the Kree army until the Inhumans asked to finish them by their own hand.[14] Meanwhile the other heroes on Earth where dealing with the scraps of the battle which could damage the Earth, Reed and Sue summons Galactus, who destroys completely the Kree army. That moment, the Mad Celestials appeared to destroy this universe. Although the team tried to use the Hub (a weapon of mass destruction created by the Reeds), they couldn't defeat the Mad Celestials. Then, a future version of Franklin and Valeria appeared as part of Nathaniel Richards's plan.[15] The Future Franklin used his power to heal Galactus and destroy the Mad Celestials, saving the day.[16] Later, the Baxter Building was easily rebuilt, Mr. Fantastic showed a new secondary headquarters called Foundation and new costumes were given to the members of the Future Foundation, also with the new additions of the future Franklin and Valeria, with the Franklin's getting the number 5 on their costumes.[17]

Time Runs Out

With the Multiverse coming to its inevitable end, caused by the Incursions, the Illuminati tried to find numerous ways to save Earth-616 from its destruction. One of their ideas consisted of using a machine to access and harness the full measure of Franklin's latent powers to create a pocket universe that the inhabitants of Earth could be relocated to. The plan did not succeed.[18] Following the incident, Sue informed Reed that Franklin was under the impression that he "disappointed" his father; Reed replied, "I should never have done that. I should never have asked."[19]

When Franklin achieves the conscious use of his full powers, he will have telepathic powers, tremendous telekinetic powers, the ability to fire enormously powerful energy blasts, and the ability to rearrange the molecular structure of matter and energy. His powers are so great that he has been able to create pocket universes, and his abilities have been described as equal to the Celestials.[24]

As an adult, he was able to turn Galactus into his herald.[25] The child Franklin and Valeria combined proved powerful enough to capture and restore the very essence of Galactus, that was hidden in the heart of Eternity, effectively resurrecting him.[26] By combining the abilities of his present and future selves, he was able to empower and control a previously defeated Galactus to destroy two Celestials.[16]

An adult version of Franklin was once described as "the great enemy of the omniversal order".[27]

An "enemy of omniversal order"

Reality Manipulation (latent): Ability to manipulate reality on a pocket universal scale.[24] After regaining his powers from a temporary loss, the first thing Franklin did with his powers was to create another pocket universe.[13]

Molecular and Energy Manipulation (latent): Ability to manipulate and emit energy as well re-arrange and manipulate molecules. Under the guidance of his older self, he once for example stabilized a sun. [28] Once he even turned the assault of hostile Celestials into harmless flowers. [29]

Chronokinesis (latent): Franklin was able to time-travel to the past to meet his past self.

Telepathy (latent): As "Psi-Lord", he demonstrated a wide variety of psionic powers. Even as a kid, he at least displayed a remarkable resistance to a psionic Celestial assault. [30]

Telekinesis (latent): Possesses telekinetic abilities enabling him to levitate and manipulate living beings, inanimate objects, and to some extent energy psionically. This also enables him to fly.

Bio-Blasts: Ability to fire enormously powerful energy blasts which he generates from his body's extrasensory potential. These were able to temporarily destroy the demon lord Mephisto within its own realm.[31]

Precognitive Dreams (latent): Precognitive abilities, which manifest themselves in his dreams, enabling him to envision possible future events. Although there are countless possible futures, Franklin foresees the most probable future path, and therefore his predictions usually come true. Franklin seemingly cannot foresee events more than roughly a few days in the future. Franklin's precognitive power developed to the point at which he could see images of future events when conscious.

Dream-Self Projection (latent): Ability to place himself in a trance-like state while remaining fully conscious. While he is in this trance, he can project an intangible, ghost like image of himself to another location, through which he can see and hear what goes on at the location. What Franklin has called the “dreams” he has while in this state are not truly dreams, but his conscious awareness of the environment into which he has projected his “dream-self.”

Superhuman Durability: Even as a kid, he has displayed a remarkable resistance to damage. Even though he was knocked unconscious, he managed to survive a direct Celestial assault with minimal damage [32][33]

Strength level

Franklin Richards possesses the normal human strength of a boy of his age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise but can augment his strength to infinite levels by manipulating reality or using telekinesis.